More than transparent wash
Barcelona artist Maru Godàs has a background in graphic design and works across media. Her local Urban Sketchers Barcelona profile highlights gouache, acrylic, ink, watercolour and coloured pencil. Her own portfolio includes illustration commissions as well as sketching. Visit those original pages to see the work. Mark’s red shopfront is a companion illustration here; it is not an example painted by Godàs.
Look for the colour arrangement
As you explore her work, ask how large colour areas establish the composition before small details appear. Compare warm and cool passages, coverage and open paper, quiet areas and busy ones. These are looking questions, not a reconstruction of a particular painting process. A vivid colour does not need an apology, but it does need neighbours that allow the eye to understand its role.
Try an opaque accent deliberately
Make a small observed study using two main colour families. If you already have an opaque medium such as gouache, test a light accent over a dry dark passage on scrap paper first. Then use the effect once where it helps the subject. You can do the same exercise with coloured pencil or simply reserve the paper. Buying another material is not the assignment.
Keep the place recognisable to you
Expressive colour and simplified shapes can still respond closely to the actual view. Retain a particular proportion, sign position or observed activity that anchors the page in its place. The point is to choose a visual language consciously, not to borrow another artist’s handwriting. A sketch can be personal without becoming vague about what prompted it.
Your turn · 25 minutes
Take it to the page.
- Choose two colour families for an observed shopfront.
- Establish the broad planes before small details.
- Add one contrasting accent using a tested medium or reserved paper.
Look back: Does the colour express a clear choice while retaining something particular about the place?
Sources & further looking
- Illustration: Keith’s, Lark Lane, Liverpool by Mark C Grant ↗
- Maru Godàs: original portfolio ↗
- Urban Sketchers Barcelona: Maru Godàs ↗
- Maru Godàs: commissioned metropolitan-area illustration ↗
Close-looking observations and practical exercises are this publication’s interpretation. Illustration credits are shown beside each work.
